Free Republic

Michael Avenatti is broke and can’t pay his legal fees, the California attorney who has represented the discredited lawyer for more than a year claims. Dean Steward filed a motion in federal court Saturday detailing Avenatti’s financial woes and is now asking for taxpayer help to cover his costs. . . . The disgraced lawyer faces three-dozen counts of fraud, tax evasion and other alleged crimes. He was convicted in February of trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike and is also accused of bilking money from Stormy Daniels, his most famous client. Avenatti has yet to be sentenced...

Some members of the mainstream media have issued mea culpas for building up now-disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti, while others have shirked responsibility and some have even blamed President Trump – but it all falls flat for critics who watched his rise from lawyer for a porn star to potential Democratic presidential candidate. Avenatti, who represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against President Trump, appeared on CNN and MSNBC a combined 229 times over two years, according to the Media Research Center. CNN’s Brian Stelter was Avenatti’s biggest cheerleader, once declaring that he was a “serious” contender to...

There's nothing better than watching the media glom onto the latest anti-Trump fantasy only to watch it go up in flames as did their love affair with now-convicted "Creepy Porn lawyer" Michael Avenatti. Back before Avenatti was known to be a raging criminal who tried to blackmail Nike into giving him millions of dollars, the media thought that he was the "savior of the Republic." Yes, they said that. ~snip~ Video

So far, only one prominent MSM television pundit has passed the test of basic integrity that the guilty verdict against Michael Avenatti poses for his former fanboys and fangirls on CNN, MSNBC, and the alphabet networks. Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s legal analyst, admitted to Anderson Cooper, who uttered not a peep of his own personal regret. The entire five and a half minute interview and transcript are embedded below, but go to 3 minutes and 46 seconds to see Toobin admit, “And frankly, you know, I feel kind of snookered, because I took him seriously,’ followed shortly thereafter by Cooper seeming...

Favorite Democrat Presidential Candidate found GUILTY & Going to Prison!

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Avenatti, a lawyer who gained fame by representing a porn star in lawsuits against President Donald Trump, was convicted Friday of trying to extort sportswear giant Nike. The verdict was returned Friday by a Manhattan federal jury after it deliberated charges of attempted extortion and honest services fraud in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Avenatti to extort up to $25 million from Nike with threats to otherwise harm it. The charges carry a combined potential penalty of 42 years in prison. Avenatti, 48, became prominent during frequent cable television program appearances in 2018...

Michael Avenatti, a lawyer who gained fame by representing a porn star in lawsuits against President Donald Trump, was convicted Friday of trying to extort sportswear giant Nike. The verdict was returned Friday by a Manhattan federal jury after it deliberated charges of attempted extortion and honest services fraud in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Avenatti to extort up to $25 million from Nike with threats to otherwise harm it. The charges carry a combined potential penalty of 42 years in prison.

Manhattan federal court judge Deborah Batts who was slated to oversee Michael Avenatti’s Stormy Daniels-related embezzlement trial, has died. She was 72. The Philadelphia-born jurist, who was the first openly gay member of the federal judiciary, passed away February 2, according to sources familiar with the matter.

LOS ANGELES – Attorney Michael Avenatti was arrested by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents Tuesday evening during a break in a disciplinary hearing in Los Angeles over allegations that the high-profile lawyer scammed a client out of $840,000. The arrest occurred around 6 p.m. outside the State Bar Court, where the State Bar of California has initiated proceedings against him. * * * Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, told Fox News that Avenatti was arrested on suspicion of violating his pre-trial release. * * * Avenatti was supposed to travel to New York...

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo referred to President Trump as "Dirty Donald" on his show Friday night and sought to promote the hashtag on Twitter while criticizing Republicans' handling of the impeachment process. Cuomo particularly went after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for saying this week that he would be in "total coordination" with White House counsel on strategy for an impeachment trial that is expected to take place in January. "It's not illegal, but there is another word that keeps seeming to fit so much what of this president and his pals do: 'dirty,'" said Cuomo, who has regularly...

For well over a decade, Adam Parkhomenko has been the most enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions. But now, the consultant who worked on Clinton’s 2008 and 2016 campaigns and their unofficial forerunners is backing a starkly different candidate. Once a champion of an establishment-favored former secretary of state, Parkhomenko argues Democrats have the best shot at defeating unconventional and crass President Trump with in-your-face attorney Michael Avenatti, best known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims a 2006 tryst with Trump. Parkhomenko, 33, remains close to Clinton and he's convinced she's not running again. In previous cycles,...

In an attempt to smear Attorney General William Barr, NBC News framed a story about Barr’s support for due process (which shouldn’t be controversial) as him supporting rapists. It’s a typical tactic by the media these days. Ever since the Obama administration issued guidelines in 2011 warning schools that they needed to find more male students responsible for sexual assault, due process has gone out the window. In 2017, professor K.C. Johnson and scholar Stuart Taylor wrote a book about the issue. At the time, I wrote a review for RealClear Books — and my previous work on the subject...

An Iranian propaganda campaign created fake Bernie Sanders supporters online, Facebook disclosed Tuesday. In a press release, the social-media giant said it had removed 652 pages associated with political-influence campaigns traced to Iran, including coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, U.K., and U.S.” The cybersecurity company FireEye, which first alerted Facebook to the influence campaign months ago, wrote in a separate posting on its site that it had traced the campaign—including posts from supposed “American liberals supportive of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders”—to Iran through email addresses...

There really is nothing new under the sun. The infamous Salem Witch Trials started with a group of young girls claiming they were doing bad things because they were possessed. They then said that it was witches who caused them to be possessed, naming them without providing any evidence. The “witches” were then summarily executed. Well, eight in total, over just a few months. According to History.com: “The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women...

The FBI believed then-candidate Donald Trump was closely involved in a scheme to hide hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed an affair with Trump, court documents from the closed campaign finance case against former Trump-fixer Michael Cohen show. The documents, released Thursday, describe a "series of calls, text messages, and emails" between Cohen, Trump, Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks, Keith Davidson — an attorney for the woman, porn star Stormy Daniels — and David Pecker, an executive of the company that published the National Enquirer. "I have learned that in the days following the Access Hollywood...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of documents relating to hush-money payments by Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to two women who said they had sexual encounters years ago with the U.S. president, declaring the matter of “national importance.” U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan ordered that the documents, used by federal prosecutors to obtain a search warrant for Cohen’s home and office last year, must be unsealed by 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) on Thursday. Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty in 2018 to directing payments of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy...

California state bar moves to suspend Avenatti's law license, saying he poses 'substantial threat of harm to clients or the public' The California State Bar, which oversees discipline for all California-licensed attorneys, issued a "consumer alert" Monday evening concerning Michael Avenatti, saying it was moving to suspend him from the practice of law because his alleged conduct "poses a substantial threat of harm to clients or the public." The sudden development further accentuated Avenatti's dramatic public fall from grace -- he was once celebrated in liberal media circles as a potential challenger to President Trump -- as he faces numerous...

Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters (CA) completely went off the rails Tuesday and called for Trump to resign in one of her craziest tirades yet. Waters, who is one of the most corrupt lawmakers in Congress, had the nerve to accuse Trump of being a “crooked liar.” “Low life Trump – lying, crooked, tax evader, porn star fornicator – should take his ridiculous self home, resign, and free us of what we will have to do to impeach him and throw him out of office!” Waters said Tuesday in a tweet.

Hailed and renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz took pictures of Chelsea Manning for Vogue in September 2017. Manning is back in jail after refusing to testify before a grand jury about Julian Assange. Leibovitz photographed Kirsten Gillibrand for Vogue in November 2017. Her presidential campaign has stumbled out of the gate and Gillibrand is at the tail end of a large pack of candidates; earlier this month the New York Times wrote that her campaign is “struggling.” Leibovitz photographed lawyer Michael Avenatti for Vogue, October 2018. Avenatti now faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, embezzlement, 36 additional financial-crime charges, including...

Embattled attorney Michael Avenatti will have a busy day in Manhattan federal court Tuesday -- but as a defendant, not as counsel. Avenatti, 49, is scheduled to be arraigned on charges that he tried to extort up to $25 million from athletic apparel giant Nike by threatening to expose claims that the shoemaker paid off high school basketball players to steer them to Nike-sponsored colleges. He also is scheduled to be arraigned on charges that he stole nearly $300,000 from adult film actress Stormy Daniels, the client who rocketed him to national prominence. In the Nike case, Avenatti is charged...